POV of a Paranoid in the Pandemic

Do you want to feel like a murderer? I certainly don’t.

We are currently living in a pandemic. An actual pandemic. The kind of pandemic that we’ve only read about in history textbooks. It is an extremely contagious virus with no antidote. It is only treated on a symptomatic basis; the virus itself cannot really be killed by medicines.

But there are many precautions that we can take. Wearing masks and staying at home are the two major ones that are being rightly propagated. Stepping out only when necessary, socially distancing ourselves, always remembering to wear masks and keeping ourselves sanitized – this is the least we can do. It is the bare minimum that we could do to show our support and respect for the medical professionals tirelessly working for us.

Due to a privilege bubble blurring our vision, we sometimes cannot comprehend the reality of the people who are suffering due to the pandemic, especially those who belong to a socio-economically backward background and are bound by financial limitations. Healthcare professionals are traumatized every single day, working in overflowing hospitals, dealing with the increasing rate of patients, lack of resources and medicines, and of course the rampant spread of disinformation. Can you imagine how you would feel if you were to inform different families every single day of how choked their father’s lungs are? Or that their grandmother passed away? Or constantly reassuring them that everything would be alright in spite of being shadowed by doubt yourself?

Some people don’t even realize the extent of problems that they could possibly cause, by going out in public places. They think nothing is ever going to happen to them – this god-like confidence will literally be the death of them. Some people even refuse to get tested in spite of having symptoms because they would rather be in denial and put others at a risk than quarantining and taking precautions. This refusal of getting tested is resulting in a false number of cases being reported – the actual amount is way more that we can imagine.

And yet, people wish to meet their friends and relatives, and are willing to travel to do the same. I can understand the desire to do so, after all, solitude can only be borne for some amount of time. However it is imperative to think of others as soon as we take the decision to step out. Receiving education from well-established institutions would go down the drain if we don’t realize the importance of the societal responsibility that we have, especially right now, in the middle of a pandemic. I was almost shunned by a friend for not making to the gatherings that my group of friends planned during the pandemic. Am I suppose to apologize for being a responsible individual? For not stepping out of the house unless absolutely necessary? For taking as many precautions as possible, not only because I live with my grandma who is 82 years old, but also because I would be putting others at a risk?

Even after completely secluding ourselves from public places and gatherings for a year, my entire family tested positive about 20 days back. My grandma had thankfully taken a dose of the vaccine and all of us recovered from the virus without severe consequences. But the entire experience left all of us with the recognition of our immense privilege. We live in a large enough house in a spacious residential colony with good neighbors, some of whom are doctors, guiding us at every stage, and helping us out with the dosage of medicines. What happens when you have a small house with only one room, and have to wait in queues to get tested or get medicines?

Even if you have recovered from the virus or have taken two doses of the vaccine, and now possess the antibodies in your body, you are not completely safe. You are still susceptible to the virus. Additionally, you are also fully capable of carrying the virus and transferring it to some other individual. And then there are full chances of that individual carrying the virus back home, infecting their family members, especially a senior citizen, ultimately putting their lives at a risk. It is literally a matter of life and death. You can possibly be the reason behind a family’s desperate frenzy to rush their mother or grandfather to the hospital and exhausting themselves economically to procure all the required medicines. And if their loved ones eventually do pass away, their families would feel numb at the sudden news of fatality, regretting not meeting them for one last time. I don’t even want to describe how their loved one would pass away, alone in a hospital, without their families by their side, surrounded by tubes and machines.

You could directly become the cause of fatalities.

Do you want to feel like a murderer? I certainly don’t.